Reviewer: Alain Touwaide, PhD (Ronin Institute)
Description: Although the subtitle announces "A Worldwide History," this thick volume covers mostly the recent history, from the 17th century. Within these limits, it covers the history of yellow fever in the United States, Central America, and Africa up to the present day on the basis of a large body of documentation, cited in extracts within the text. Black-and-white illustrations accompany the text, including reproductions of significant documents, photographs of major actors of the history and scenes and institutions, designs and graphic creations. Written in an almost journalistic style the 34 brief chapters (10 to 12 pages, with some exceptions), the book reads easily as a report of a history in the making.
Purpose: As the authors put it, the report of "the words written by those who lived through these terrible times" will "lead to a better understanding of the obstacles before us." The book aims to be a wake-up call and, to this end, it presents the repeated debates, the trials and attempts together with the hesitations, the obstacles, temporary successes and failures, reaching the "depressing realization that people never change." Whether the book will act as a wake-up call or not depends on individual sensitivity. At the very least, it has merit in the collection and presentation of a massive quantity of relevant documentation and its lively reporting.
Audience: Thanks to its multifaceted nature (mostly but certainly not exclusively collection of information, attractive presentation, and report of medical facts), this is a book that will serve multiple audiences, from clinicians to history majors. It will resonate differently according to its readers, possibly fostering a vocation for medical research, inspiring further historical research, or even calling action-oriented readers to action in the field. The authors have long experience in communication and have collaborated on several works about the history of major diseases.
Features: Although it does not offer a "worldwide history" of yellow fever, the book offers a multinational history of the fight against it. It is presented in 34 relatively brief chapters, each of which deals with a specific phase of the phenomenon and can be read as a self-standing story. The relatively intriguing titles of the chapters (including some element of chronology or location) are invitations to read these stories, written in an engaging style. Multiple citations and data are embedded in the text (with the references provided in end-notes), which also include some black-and-white illustrations. The list of newspapers and magazines that follows the bibliography is impressive and the detailed index will prove useful for a more systematic study.
Assessment: This is an exciting book, which will be diversely appreciated according to the audiences. It can be read as an enthralling story of the human fight against disease, a lively day-to-day report of research, a "white book" calling to action, or (among others) a model for scholarly research based on a quest for documentation. Whatever the approach, it is a book that will not leave readers indifferent.
